Picture this — it’s the top of the seventh inning, with the game tied 2-2 in a tough district game, and Grants High School junior Estevan Barela drills a hit to the fence to score the winning RBI.
Picture perfect—does not get much better than that for some prep baseball action.
For the Pirates, district baseball play is tightening up and the Pirates in defeating a strong district rival Belen propels them up in the rankings in the district and state.
“The win over Belen was a great win to keep us in the mix for a district title,” said GHS head baseball coach Mike Furbee. The Pirates currently at 12-5, 3-1 are now chasing number one rank in district 5 4A, St. Pius is the current district number one rank, with a record of 10-11, 3-0.
“The game was a little closer than need be we left 14 runners on base”.
Junior pitcher Estevan Barela pitched seven innings and accumulated an impressive 13 strikeouts, allowing five hits, two runs and one earned run with no walks.
When asked about Barela’s performance at the mound, Furbee said, “Barela had an outstanding performance on the hill.”
Barela also accumulated two RBI’s and two hits followed by Diego Lopez with one RBI and one hit.
The Pirates subsequently played the Taos Tigers in a non-district match-up on the road this past Monday, April 14.
The Tigers coming in 8-8, 2-2 were handily defeated by the Pirates 6-1.
“It’s always tough to go on the road–-that was a good in at Taos,” said Furbee Daniel Garcia, a freshman, had his first varsity start pitching at Taos and “picked up the win” against Taos according to Furbee.
Garcia pitched three innings allowing three hits, one run, one earned run one walk and two strikeouts. In that game, Josiah Marquez pitched three innings, allowing one hit and had two strikeouts. Ethan Taylor pitched one inning with one strikeout.
In the Taos game Dominick Gonzales had three RBI’s, one run, one hit and one walk. Barela and Maquez had one RBI apiece.
Next up for the Pirates will be a district game on the road against the Valencia Jaguars (9-11,1-2), whom they defeated earlier in the year 25-1.
Currently the Pirates are ranked second in the state in 4A baseball just after Artesia (11-6, 0-0) who is ranked number one. District rival St. Pius is ranked fifth in the state.
In the most recent coaches’ poll on newmexicoiovertimesports. com the Pirates are ranked 2nd in the state.
Softball
GHS Lady Pirate softball is currently 8-8,1-3 after defeating non-district teams. The Pirates defeated Rehoboth Christian on April 12 by a score of 7-5. They played against 2A Laguna-Acoma on April 14 in a double header defeating the Lady Hawks 10-8, 145 respectively. Next up for the lady Pirates is 3A Thoreau(3-8, 0-2) on April 15h (3-8, 0-2).
The Lady Hawks softball team is currently 9-5, 0-0 after losing in a double- heard to 4A Grants High School on April 14. Next up will be the district opener which is a doubleheader with a tough 12-2, 0-0 Hozho Academy on April 17th. Hozho is currently the number one team in district 1 A/2A followed by the Lady Hawks.
The L-A baseball team is 7-7, 0-2 after splitting with Navajo Prep on April 4th where they won the first game 7-6 and lost the second game 12-11. Their next game will be with a non-district rival, the Zuni Thunderbirds (710, 3-1) at home on April 17th.
CIBOLA COUNTY SPORTS ROUND-UP
Track season picking up steam and track Pirate junior running sensation Laila Martinez put on her running shoes this past Saturday at the prestigious Rio Rancho Invitational and placed 1st in the 1800-meter run with a time of 5:25.52. Martinez then laced-up the running shoes and headed over to the 3200-meter run where Martinez blazed the track for another first-place finish with a time of 11:40.66. Teammate Sianalee Chavez placed 5th in that 3200-meter run with a time of 12:51.35.
Teammate Tore Felipe placed second in the discus with a throw of 96.6 and 4th in the shot put with a throw of 30-3 while Jenna Gurule placed third in the 300meter hurdles with a time of 52.31.